Apple x IBDI: A very poorly explained story

Yesterday the news that some IBDI has fled a lawsuit against Apple por having evolved the iPad too fast gained some attention in websites in Brazil as well as internationally. The news came from Jornal do Comércio and it brough information and absurd declarations which made it very hard to read through the whole thing with a straight face.

After I finished reading the story, I headed to the IBDI website, looking for more information on all the idiocy I had just read. I looked up under News, under Legislation, under Jurisprudence, and didn’t find anything. Then I decided to try and contact them. First via Twitter, followed by an email. The email they never answered. However they did contact me on Twitter a couple of hours later.

@ibdi Is the news that you have filed a lawsuit against Apple because of the release of the iPad 4 true? I looked up for information on your website and didn’t find anything.

@mvcmendes

@mvcmendes We don’t know anything about it, at least not in Brazil

@ibdi – a couple of hours later

@ibdi In this case the news is wrong? There is no lawsuit filed by IBDI against Apple regarding the short gap between releases for the iPad 3 and 4?

@mvcmendes

To my surprise, the company denied knowing anything about the lawsuit they had apparently filed against Apple. Judging that the company could be taken as a reliable source of information about itself, I updated the article about this here on TechLinhas and informed MacRumors about what I had just learned.

As the matter kept gaining attention, I decided to contact the lawyer quoted in the original story, Sérgio Palomares. He, however, informed me that the original information was correct, and that contrary to what the company had informed me, the lawsuit was infact true.

Hours later, the company contacted me on Twitter saying that they would make a statement about it in a “timely manner”. Then they moved to delete the post in which they denied knowledge of the lawsuit, wich fortunately I had already registered. Having done that, the company went on to post on their website all the news that they could find that didn’t call attention to how absolutely proposterous their lawsuit is.

“@OliveiraEmerson @mvcmendes IBDI will make a statement on the matter in a timely manner”

@ibdi

I don’t know what is the worst part about this entire thing. If it’s the absurd lawsuit by itself, it it’s the lawyers quotes on the matter (such as “The iPad 4 broke the company schedule paradigm of product release”), if it’s the fact that the company said they had no idea of what I was talking about and then taking it back, or the fact that they tried to cover their tracks showing that the lack of scruples isn’t limited to their legal department.